The importance of pre-season testing for Mercedes

The W13 may not have been a huge failure, as it managed to secure a race win, a pole position, 17 podium finishes and contend for second place in the constructors’ championship.

Toto Wolff is eager to see if Mercedes have been able to improve their car’s performance for the 2023 F1 season after a challenging 2022 campaign.

Toto Wolff acknowledges that Mercedes will only know if they have resolved the problems of the previous season on their car for 2023 once pre-season testing begins.

The team went through a difficult season in 2022, encountering issues with the W13 such as porpoising early on in the year.

Although they showed some improvement as the season progressed, the Silver Arrows were not able to keep up with Red Bull and Ferrari and ended the championship in third place.

Wolff is optimistic that Mercedes have identified the issues, but he is being cautious in making any predictions until testing starts.

“I believe we have a grasp on how we lost ground and where our weaknesses were, where we previously had gaps in knowledge” Wolff said to the media including RacingNews365.

“We are putting a lot of effort in building a car that addresses all these issues. But we will only know for sure if we have unlocked the potential of the car once we start testing.”

“It’s going to be a tough task to catch up with teams like Red Bull or Ferrari when you’re already half a second behind at the start,” Wolff said with no doubt.

Although Mercedes is ready for the challenge of catching up to their competitors, Wolff believes that it is important for them to have realistic expectations.

“We are highly motivated to catch up with Red Bull and Ferrari,” the team boss said.

“However, it is important for us to have realistic expectations. If we perform as we hope to, we would like to be competitive and race at the front,” Wolff explained.

“I believe that would be a good starting point, but we are not assuming that will be the case. It is possible that the gaps will remain as they were at the end of last season,” Wolff said.

“However, I feel that there is still a lot of potential in our car, in the concept, the way we drive it, etc. so we may be able to have a steeper development slope in the upcoming months,” Wolff said.

pre-season testing for Mercedes pre-season testing for Mercedes

Read also – Williams planned for Sargeant to stay in F2 for 2023

Also make sure you follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram  for all the latest updates between issues.